The Super Bowl is in the rearview and the NFL draft is still a couple months away, but this is anything but a slow time for the league.
NFL free agency is revving up as teams make tough roster and salary decisions for 2026, with big-name stars like former Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill and pass rusher Bradley Chubb getting released in the last week.
NFL roster management and the league calendar are complex, though, so the list of available free agents will be ever-changing. (Some players are simply cheaper to release after June 1 with the way their contracts are structured, while others will be cut in the coming weeks.)
Most fully expect the Atlanta Falcons to release veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins before the start of the new “league year” in March, but that technically hasn’t happened yet. There is speculation over whether running back Alvin Kamara’s time in New Orleans could be over, but he’s not a free agent as of this moment and could be one of those post-June roster moves for the Saints.
There’s speculation that wide receiver Stefon Diggs could be one-and-done in New England. And that wideout Michael Pittman could be a cap casualty in Indianapolis, especially if the Colts prioritize re-signing free agent pass-catcher Alec Pierce.
But we can only work with what is already official.
(And we’re leaving QB Aaron Rodgers on his own island — fully stocked with Ayahuasca and dark caves for deep pondering — as he most likely decides on retirement or a return to the Pittsburgh Steelers.)
So consider this version 1.0 of this ranking with updates to follow.
NFL teams can officially start negotiating with free agents March 9 and signings can become official March 11, so there’s still a few weeks of ramp up to be done.
Ranking The Top 10 NFL Free Agents For 2026
Here are the top 10 NFL free agents as it stands on February 19.
1. WR George Pickens
Will the Dallas Cowboys really let Pickens leave town after the former Steeler had a career-best season in his first year with Dak Prescott and Co.?
Pickens had 93 catches for 1,429 yards and 9 touchdowns in the final year of his rookie contract originally signed with Pittsburgh as a second-round draft pick in 2022. He was a steal for the Cowboys, who sent 2026 third- and fifth-round draft picks to the Steelers last May for the talented wideout, with a 2027 sixth-round pick also coming back in the deal.
He won’t be a bargain this time around for whichever team signs him this offseason.
It’s widely expected the Cowboys will place the franchise tag on Pickens, which would mean around $27-$28 million guaranteed for next season. They have until March 3 to do so. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee he plays for Dallas next season, though. A holdout and trade would still be possibilities if a long-term deal couldn’t be reached.
And the Cowboys already have some tough decisions and expected contract restructuring to do as they’re presently projected to be over the salary cap as is. They also have the third-highest-paid receiver in the league in CeeDee Lamb ($34 million) already.
Nothing can be ruled out with Jerry Jones (and family) at the wheel.
So Pickens’ future isn’t solidified just yet, and he’s one of the few true game-changing talents on the free agent market who could put a WR-needy team like, say, the Buffalo Bills over the top.
2. DE Trey Hendrickson
It’s not very often that one of the top pass rushers in the league still in the back end of his prime becomes a free agent available to any team.
The Bengals resolved a contract dispute with Hendrickson just before the 2025 season, giving him a $30 million payday on a one-year deal, but he was limited to just seven games by a serious hip/pelvis injury that required “core muscle surgery.”
He’s a free agent now and expected to move on after five seasons in Cincinnati following four in New Orleans.
Hendrickson posted back-to-back 17.5-sack seasons in 2023-24, leading the league in 2024 and finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Overall, he has 81 career sacks, 163 QB hits, 15 forced fumbles, 236 tackles and 16 pass deflections in nine NFL seasons, including four seasons with at least 13.5 sacks.
Hendrickson will cash in with another massive payday ahead, but the question is how much of a long-term investment will he land? All it takes to swing his market dramatically is one team that believes he can still be an elite pass rusher after the injury and that such a player transforms its Super Bowl hopes.
3. QB Daniel Jones
Jones is an unrestricted free agent, but he is expected to re-sign with the Indianapolis Colts after what was trending toward a career season before a torn Achilles tendon in Week 14.
He completed a career-best 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards (just 104 off his high), 19 TDs and 8 INTs (plus a career-best 5 rushing TDs) in 14 games.
The Colts were off to an 8-2 start before Jones fractured his fibula in Week 12 and continued playing for another two weeks.
They’re expected to trade former first-round pick Anthony Richardson and invest in Jones, the former first-round pick of the New York Giants, as their future.
The Colts could also use the franchise tag on Jones if a long-term team can’t be reached, but there is a debate as to whether it’s even more important to use on the aforementioned Pierce.
4. RB Breece Hall
We don’t know what Hall looks like on a more competent football team with a good quarterback who actually makes opposing defenses gameplan for the passing game and not just the rushing attack.
Hall, a second-round pick by the New York Jets in 2022 after a prodigious college career at Iowa State, rushed for a career-high 1,065 yards — the first for the franchise since Chris Ivory in 2015 — with 350 receiving yards and 5 rushing/receiving TDs (and 1 passing). He’s averaged a respectable 4.5 yards per carry for his career with a high of 5.8 as a rookie (on 80 carries), but again, that’s with the Jets.
Throw Hall in a better offense with a competent quarterback (like, say, with the Broncos) and … well, maybe we’ll find out in 2026. We’re not saying it’s the same as Saquon Barkley leaving the moribund New York Giants offense for the Eagles a couple years ago, but …
Unless the Jets slap the franchise tag on him, that is.
5. EDGE Odafe Oweh
Oweh made himself a pending generational fortune after being traded mid-season from the Baltimore Ravens to Los Angeles Chargers this past October.
The 2021 first-round pick out of Penn State had 7.5 sacks, 13 QB hits and 28 tackles in 12 games with the Chargers after posting 0 sacks and 5 QB hits in five games with the Ravens. He then had 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles in the Chargers’ playoff loss to the Patriots.
Oweh did have 10 sacks for Baltimore in 2024 (and 23 over his first four seasons), so the breakout wasn’t out of nowhere.
But that 13-game showcase leading into free agency is what is going to drive up Oweh’s next contract exponentially.
There’s plenty of buzz about the Ravens, of all teams, being a logical match with former Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter the new head coach in Baltimore.
6. C Tyler Linderbaum
NFL centers rarely get the spotlight, but teams desperate for stability at such a … central … position will be all over Linderbaum if he doesn’t return to the Ravens.
A first-round draft pick in 2022 out of Iowa, Linderbaum has made three straight Pro Bowls for the Ravens, but they did not pick up his fifth-year option last offseason because it would have locked him in for $23.4 million — by far the most for any center in the league. So Baltimore will definitely be in play to retain one of its offensive line anchors.
But as a free agent, so will other teams.
7A/B WRs Mike Evans and Alec Pierce
We’re cheating here, but we felt there were 11 guys who needed to make the top 10 and Evans and Pierce both slot in at a similar spot.
Even though they’re quite different overall.
Both are field-stretchers, but Evans is a 32-year-old six-time Pro Bowl selection who ranks 21st all-time in NFL history with 13,052 receiving yards and 10th with 108 receiving touchdowns while tying Jerry Rice’s record with 11 straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons before an injury-marred 2025. He’s on the backside of his career, but he’s a proven 6-foot-5 weapon who has been as reliable as any WR in the league at moving the chains or reeling in a deep strike the last decade-plus.
The 6-foot-3 Pierce was a late second-round pick in 2022 who has progressively improved in each of his four seasons and emerged as the Colts’ top wideout in 2025, hauling in a career-high 47 catches for 1,003 yards (his first 1,000-yard season) and 6 TDs.
What has Pierce so high on the free agent rankings is his elite yards-per-catch numbers — 22.3 in 2024 and 21.3 in 2025 while leading the NFL both seasons.
Evans could be the missing piece for Super Bowl contender or look to finish his career where it started and return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Pierce is just 25 with his best years presumably still ahead and could be a long-term investment that transforms a team’s passing attack for years to come.
8. LB Devin Lloyd
A first-round draft pick in 2022 out of Utah, Lloyd had his best overall season in 2025 and earned second-team All-Pro recognition after posting 81 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 10 QB hits and a career-best 5 INTs (with a TD return).
Lloyd’s tackle numbers were the lowest of his career after three straight seasons of 113-127 tackles, but with 9 career INTs and 26 passes defended his ability to factor into coverage as well as against the run makes him a coveted free agent.
9. RB Kenneth Walker III
Walker may not have been so high on this list a couple months ago, but the Super Bowl MVP had a postseason to remember for the champion Seattle Seahawks.
He’s battled persistent injuries during his career and had seen diminishing production since his rookie season before matching his career-high at 4.6 YPC in 2025 with 1,027 rushing yards and 5 TDs plus 282 receiving yards.
Walker was half of a dynamic backfield tandem for Seattle with Zach Charbonnet, until Charbonnet’s season-ending injury in the team’s first playoff game. Walker took on a larger role at that point, totaling 313 rushing yards, 104 receiving yards and 4 TDs in three postseason games — including his MVP-winning Super Bowl performance with 27 carries for 135 yards plus 26 receiving yards.
That’ll boost one’s free agent stock.
10. QB Malik Willis
This is going to be the ultimate gamble for a team that wants to go all-in on Willis and give him a chance to be a full-time starter, but QB-needy teams are going to be parsing every second of film from his two standout relief appearances for Packers’ starter Jordan Love late in the season.
Willis was 9-of-11 passing for 121 yards and a TD with 44 rushing yards in an overtime loss to the Bears after taking over following Love’s concussion. And then in his lone start, he went 18 of 21 for 288 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs and rushed 9 times for 60 yards and 2 scores in a loss to the Ravens.
But the 2022 third-round pick out of Liberty has made just 6 total NFL starts going back to his time with the Tennessee Titans, and he wasn’t good there while completing 50.8 percent of his passes as a rookie with 0 TD passes and 3 INTs in three starts and eight appearances overall.
He was much better as a backup in Green Bay, with a 6-to-0 TD-to-INT ratio, 78.7% completion rate and 3 rushing TDs in 3 starts and 11 appearances the last two years.
How teams evaluate all of that will be fascinating to see, but Willis sure looked like one of the 32 best QBs in the NFL in those two December games for the Packers in 2025.
